The Sword of Damocles

Love and hate we cross the line,

two dancers never knowing rhythm,

can't see an ending anymore than you can.

You take color out the room,

of which you stand surrounded and watched,

a prism bending light for only your gain.

I don't need no other path,

give me everything you have hidden,

the very breath inside my lungs burns in you.

You're broken pieces trampled,

they cut me open like shattered glass,

break skin seep into my blood effortlessly.

Bones will never mend the same,

kisses in dark and broken places,

we turn away from judgement on their faces.

Tell me which you long to be,

the unsung hero or the villain?

The honesty's too much when we play our roles.

A breeze could send it swinging,

the unnerving pendulum commands,

the sword of Damocles hangs over our heads.

Innocence holds the dagger,

short nails on long fingertips dig in,

danger pressed so sweetly to my hanging neck.

If you're an omen of death,

I welcome you with arms wide open,

it is never quite a surrender with you.

The inevitable fall,

you are cut out of the crescent moon,

and I am cut out of the unyielding sun.

Cut the rope let the sword fall,

your consequences taste like silver,

the chosen one and sacrifice mean the same.

The whispers were unseemly,

I added martyr to my titles,

the hurt was worse when the pain remained unseen.

Buried deep in your coffin,

I'd thought there was no me without you,

but it's pressure that forms the rebel diamond.

I'd heard it takes a village,

to raise one from proverbial flames,

in order to bring hope to the endless waltz.

Sanitizing history,

made notorious the mystery,

my resolve I wear like armor into war.

Fueled by those that marched before,

weaving riots into symphonies,

they lived and died for me to speak with valor.

From you I learned a lesson,

when you hide you can be lost as well,

I have no intention to shield my colors.

Let the world see who I am,

red like my blood orange like sunset,

mellow yellow gives way to envious green.

Blue like velvet in my soul,

stitched together where it melds in time,

when indigo bleeds dark to ultraviolet.

I still exist without you,

I still thrive in my found family,

that sword cut me free to roam in reverie.